It never ceases to amaze me how much we love numbers and lists. You give me a list and I am reading it from number one to number 399. You tell me there is 101 (somehow, odd numbers always work better than even) ideas to improve my home, and I start reading. But the questions that I always ask myself are the following: When those numbers exceed a certain amount, let’s say a 1001, how many continue reading or care? What is your limit? And, further more, have you ever taken a magazine to task to proof to you that the numbers on the cover are in there? Take for example the new issue of Women’s Health. The May issue sports a cover line that says, “2263 Amazing New Health, Sex, Fitness & Nutrition Tips.” Well, what are you waiting, go grab a copy of the May issue and start counting. It will be interesting to see how much more time you are going to spend with the magazine doing that. It may become addictive, you will fall in love with the magazine, and they will gain a reader forever…
The magic of numbers…
April 18, 2007A Swedish Rosie magazine is born…
April 17, 2007
I do not know what is the reason for this flurry of European new magazine titles trying to either revive titles that have come and gone in the States such as George, or the use of proper names for their new magazines following the footsteps of O, the Oprah magazine. I know it is not a new trend to name the magazine after a proper name, but the recent increase in this trend is what caught my attention. The Dutch have their Linda and Catherine, The Finns have their Sara and Olivia, and the Swedes have Laura, M and now Rosie… However as much as I can tell, the Swedish Rosie is a new magazine for outdoor living, and if you can speak Swedish you can read all about it here, or for more info about Rosie and other Sewdish magazines click here to read the comments in English from vassaeggen.se (thanks for the info folks)…I hope they have a better luck dealing with the outdoors rather than the indoors and the courts….
True Green…True Digital
April 17, 2007
Just so you would not think that the whole magazine world has ceased to exit because of CN Portfolio’s launch, I have some other news to report on. The folks at Green*Light magazine sent me an e-mail earlier today to present their magazine to me “as an example of (what we think is) great digital magazine presentation. We are interested in Monkey too and think it brings great visibility to the digital magazine genre, but like ours better.” Green*Light magazine launched in 2005 and has completed five issues in digital format so far. I visited the magazine site and flipped through the pages of the latest issue and liked what I saw. Relevant content, and relevant design, all in a made-for-digital format. The size of the type is good, the amount of words are great for the screen, and the pictures are right for pixels on the screen. However, what the magazine lacks is the interactivity and the movement Monkey magazine and other similar platforms offer on the web. A good start and a good “put your money where your mouth is,” but you need to check it for yourself here.
Thank God Condé Nast Portfolio is a monthly…
April 17, 2007What was I thinking when I wrote earlier that I will be reviewing the first issue of Condé Nast Portfolio as soon as I find a quiet place to sit down and read the “whole glowing issue.” Well, little I knew that the magazine is so addictive, the articles are so captivating, and the photography will freeze your flipping movement for a long long time… there is no way I can finish this issue today or tomorrow or even the day after. I am so glad it is a monthly and so glad that the information in it is timely yet timeless…I am going to take my time and sip it like that great glass of wine that ought to be drunk one slow, very slow sip at a time.
Remember those black boxes…
April 16, 2007
If you recall those black boxes in the picture of the Condé Nast Portfolio’s staff two days ago, well I received one this morning, and let me tell you it was worth the wait. First impression, wow… second impression more wow… I know I am not going to have time to actually sit down and read the whole issue now, (For those of you who do not know me, I am the chair of the Journalism Department at The University of Mississippi and they really pay me to do other things beside reading magazines). The funny thing is that media critics are issuing their verdicts without even giving the magazine the chance to hit the newsstands (a week from today)… If it were up to the print (funny to say that) media “Some analysts question whether Condé Nast’s new Portfolio magazine will fare better than other business magazines,” read the caption accompanying the picture of the cover of the new magazine in the New York Times Business Day section this morning. Some even went as far to state “I don’t think they (Condé Nast) would make the same decision to launch a business magazine now because the climate ahs changed since they announced.” The sad part those analysts have forgotten the history of the magazine industry plus they did not even see the magazine or any of its content. Just as a quick reminder about launching a magazine in the worst of times, Fortune was launched by Henry Luce in the midst of the Great Depression with a dollar cover price (think one dollar in 1930). There will more on the first issue of Portfolio as soon as I can leave my office and find a quite corner and read the whole “glowing” package.
Why do I love CN Portfolio? read on …
April 16, 2007Before I get accused, although for some the verdict has been announced already, of being a Condé Nast Portfolio’s magazine groupie or cheerleader, let me give you a quick brief on why I love this magazine and why I am neither a groupie nor a cheerleader for CN Portfolio. I came to America in 1978 and continued my hobby of collecting first issues and studying them since then. I used first issues as my base for my academic studies, books, website, and now my blog. I have accumulated more than 23,000 first editions of all kinds of magazines. I have seen magazines come and I have seen magazines go. I never paid attention to the hype the media gives any given title. I always had my own views and my own opinions. All were and are based on my careful analysis and research on the new titles, how relevant they are, and how they relate to a specific audience. Yes, of course I also pay a lot of attention to my gut feeling about the titles. When I selected In Touch Weekly as the launch of the year of 2002, the traditional media and media reporters completely ignored the title and wrote it off. The magazine now has a circulation over 1.2 million and growing. My friend Steve Cohn wrote in MIN last week about the decline of new titles in the first quarter of 2007, “but it will not be a “slow” year with the onset of CN Portfolio, which Husni “has a good feeling about.” He was not pre-launch optimistic over the just-as-hyped Talk (1999) and Rosie (2001), and both failed.” It happened with Brill’s Content before them. While some media reporters are betting on how long CN Portfolio is going to be with us, and others are questioning the wisdom of the launch techniques, I am celebrating the fact that a major magazine company is still committed to launch a major title rather than pulling the plug on one. Passion and love (two words are so foreign to most of the media crowds) are what took my magazine hobby, turned it into an education, and in turn to a profession… the same passion and love that I see now in the way the folks at Condé Nast are launching Portfolio. I love Portfolio, even before I see its first issue (a first for me), because I love the commitment and courage of Condé Nast in launching this title. Bloom in the midst of plenty of business magazines doom…wow what an encouraging event for the future of magazine publishing and those who still believe in this business…
It is indeed the cover of the first issue…
April 15, 2007of Condé Nast Portfolio and here are the details courtesy of David Carey, group president and publishing director of the magazine. ‘This image is by fine art photographer Scott Peterman, who is best known for his megacities project, where he goes in by helicopter or shoots from rooftops. This one is entitled “Surge,” he took it from the Empire State Building. In some ways, it’s an homage to Bernice Abbott’s classic 1930 photographs — but with a modern twist. The cover serves as a commentary on the society we live in — it’s a little bit Gilded Age, a little bit cautionary tale. The cover flap runs on newsstand copies (200,000 single copies distributed at airports and bookstores starting this week) AND charter subscriber copies — who will also receive their copies by the end of the week. We like that we can get the cover image totally clean, and use the flap to educate the readers about what’s inside.” (see cover below)
Is this the cover of CN Portfolio?
April 15, 2007
My friend Rex Hammock is asking the same question I am asking here…is this the cover of the first issue of Condé Nast Portfolio? From all indications, the one on the left looks like it is the cover of the newsstand edition, with a flap for cover lines, similar to that of the very successful approach of The New Yorker, the one on the right is for subscribers …Both covers appear on the Portfolio.com web site . This maybe it, since David Carey told me that the cover of the first issue “glows…” and the one I see definitely does that. Let the suspense continue few more hours…
Condé Nast Portfolio on its way…
April 15, 2007The baby is born and here is the proof of the delivery.
The picture above of the entire team of Condé Nast Portfolio, with packages containing the first issue of the magazine ready to be shipped late on Sat. night in front of the Fed Ex truck on 43rd street at 4 Times Square (Condé Nast headquarters) in New York City. As the countdown continues, David Carey (thanks for sending the evidence) described the events of the day to me. “As a ‘launch fan’, you would have loved today,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Our entire team gathered in NY, to assemble by hand our very handsome ‘charter advertiser packages’ — for most of the team, it was the first time they had seen the actual magazine (we’ve kept it under wraps internally as well as externally), and it was so exciting.” He added, “At the end of the day, we all walked down nearly down 500 boxes to a waiting FedEx truck on 43rd Street, and sent out the first copies to top CEOs, clients, press… — all to arrive on Monday morning, the exact same day the issue press breaks…” David sounds like one proud daddy, and he ought to be. In a climate of magazine industry leaders self-made “doom and gloom predictions,” here comes a major sense of “proud bloom” to remind us that print is not dead, but is alive, well and kicking. If nothing else, Condé Nast is sending a loud and clear message that they still believe in print and its power, and in the same time they are using the power of the print brand to expand to other forms of the media as they become available whether online or on your mobile phone.
Thanks David for sharing and all the best on the birth of the new baby. As a quick reminder, the baby was born with 332 pages from which 185 are ad pages. Indeed, a healthy one.
Garden & Gun debuts…
April 15, 2007
What does Garden & Gun have in common with Condé Nast Portfolio besides being born on the same day? The publishers of both magazines are ex-publishers of The New Yorker. Rebecca Darwin, shares the same honors with David Carey as being a former publisher of The New Yorker. And in the midst of all the fanfare accompanying CN Portfolio’s launch, Ms. Darwin ushered her first issue of the 21st Century Southern America to the market place without any fanfare compared to that of her colleague at her former employer. As for the cover, no surprise here. Pat Conroy graces the cover of the first issue of Garden & Gun. The magazine has a total of 132 pages from which almost 23 pages are ad pages. Editor in Chief John Wilson has managed to create a first issue with a lot of “fanfare” writings and photography. To get your hands on the first issue of Garden & Gun, click here, or just visit a newsstands and spend your $4.95. It is worth it. The second issue is set for June and the magazine plans to publish 10 issues a year.
